BEIJING: Less than 8 million couples registered for marriage in China in 2021, the lowest number in 36 years. This information has come out from official figures. This report has raised concerns about the declining birth rate and population decline in China. According to the latest 2021 Statistical Report on the Development of Civil Affairs, only 70.64 lakh couples registered for marriage across China last year, the lowest number since 1986.
According to the report, the number of couples getting married was 6.1 percent less in 2021 as compared to 2020. Statistics show that the number of marriages has registered a decline for the eighth year in a row. Last year, the number of people aged 25 to 29 in the married population stood at 35.3 percent, up 0.4 percent from 2020, making it the group with the highest proportion among all age groups marrying for the ninth year in a row.
The ‘Global Times’ quoted Chinese experts as saying that the trend of late marriage would affect China’s policy of allowing three children, adding to the challenge to overcome population problems. China allowed all couples to have two children in 2016, ending the decades-old ‘one child’ policy. Last year China passed a revised population and family planning law allowing Chinese couples to have up to three children.
Census data in China in 2020 showed that the country’s population grew at the slowest pace. Experts have attributed the decline in the number of marriages and the trend of late marriages to longer years of schooling, increasing pressure of life and work, and changing perceptions and attitudes of youth towards marriage.
